It’s easy to focus all our attention on the presidential election. This year, more than most others, our country’s future will be vastly different depending on whether Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump wins in November. 

It might be the first line at the top of your ballot, but the truth is Colorado is nearly certain to award Kamala Harris all 10 of its Electoral College votes.

The most local elections — the ones we focus the least on — are the most likely to have the greatest impact on our daily lives here in Summit County.

I met Andrew Maciejewski, the editor of this paper, in August for coffee. He informed me that he wanted to make sure we were focusing our columns on local issues. I couldn’t agree more with this decision. A few weeks ago he wrote about this new editorial policy. There are ample news outlets and other sources for information about national issues, but here in Summit County we are lucky to still have a daily newspaper focused on covering local government and elections. This, unfortunately, has become a rarity in America as a number of forces have conjoined to make the news business, particularly local news, unprofitable.

That is unfortunate.

Over the past few weeks scores of people have asked me who I think is going to win the presidential election, yet not a single person has asked me if Summit School District Ballot Issue 4A is going to pass.

This $195 million bond proposal will not only impact every student and parent in Summit County but every taxpayer in the county as well. The health of our school system is one of the paramount issues that will impact the livability and sustainability of any community.

I support the ballot measure, but that’s not the point. We owe it to our community to spend at least as much time thinking about and discussing this ordinance as we do discussing the presidential election. This means reading up on the issue, hearing both sides and voting in the way you feel will best fit our county’s future. We can have differing opinions on whether you believe the school district should issue a $195 million bond, but let’s all make the most educated decision possible. Who is living in the White House in 2025 won’t be decided by Summit voters, but the future of education in this county will be.

The bond issue isn’t the only local election that will matter. There are two contested county commissioner seats in District 1 and District 2. Those local elected officials will have an incredible impact on our day-to-day lives, so making an educated choice about representation matters.

Keystone voters will have two initiatives critical to the governance of the town deciding if they should impose a lodging tax and lift a cap on government spending. Both of these issues are obviously critical to how the new locality will be governed in the future.

There are also a plethora of statewide ballot initiatives that will impact the day-to-day lives of Coloradans. I wrote in my last column about Amendment 80, but numerous other initiatives will have just as big an impact, including one that if passed will protect abortion rights in Colorado and another that would fundamentally change our election system. Proposition 131 would eliminate partisan primaries and decide elections through a system of ranked choice voting. While generally supportive of electoral reform, I am quite skeptical of the motives behind this particular ballot measure that was financed by the former CEO of DaVita — and its potential effects on our government.

However, my point is not to tell you which way to vote in these upcoming elections. My request is for you to take an hour and read about these issues. Come to an educated opinion and cast your vote.

Thankfully Summit Daily has done an excellent job in covering every vote on the ballot and hosting a single page where you can educate yourself with unbiased and accurate information. It is the type of public service journalism that has gone missing in this country and needs to be brought back.

Go vote. But before you do, take a moment to study these issues. The future of our community depends on it.

Ari Rabin-Havt lives in Breckenridge and served as deputy campaign manager on Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign and was a Sanders aide from 2017 to 2021. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Jacobin, The American Prospect, The New Republic and other publications. You can find him on Twitter @arirabinhavt or email him at summitdailyari@gmail.com.